Life Experiment: Frugal Meal Planning
Happy Easter! This spring, I've been testing out a new way of grocery shopping and cooking - specifically, I've been meal planning and shopping in accordance with a frugal new focus. How did we get here and what does it mean? Well, let me start at the beginning...
In December, Matt proposed! And so, after taking the holidays to let it all soak in as we shared our happy news, we sat down in the New Year to work out our wedding budget. My parents have been amazing with their wedding support but we just wanted to make sure our personal spending wouldn't negatively impact the other savings goals that we have (for things like buying a house, traveling, dining out, etc.). While looking through our expenses, we realized that we were probably missing out on some money saving ideas so I started researching all the different types of advice out there on the internet.
As sometimes happens, I fell down a bit of a youtube rabbit hole one evening and landed on the video above from Jordan Page (Website: FunCheaporFree.com) . She is a frugal living expert who is adamant that your family/household budget for grocery shopping should be... $100 per person, per month. And, this $100 per person includes not just food but everything you buy at the supermarket - laundry detergent, trash bags, dog food... etc. However, for a household of two, the budget starts at $300. This means for Matt and I, we have $75 a week to use at the grocery store.
For simplicity, I've translated this as 75 GBP per week because ain't nobody got time for complex currency exchange math!
Now, a big part of maintaining this budget (or, ideally, coming in well under budget - more on this later), is making the best use possible of the pantry, fridge and freezer. I realized that although my kitchen cupboards and freezer are often bursting at the seams, I'm not actually that great about consistently using the items therein. That realization made me feel so ridiculous so I committed to planning out each week's meals with one eye on the items we already had so that I could start making better use of the items already in the fridge, freezer and pantry.
So, I did what I always do... I made a spreadsheet. I'm definitely not an Excel pro and I know this will seem overly intense to a lot of people, but I've found this to be so incredibly helpful in my meal planning. I use the Tesco app (since that's my preferred local store) to work out how much my groceries will cost and I add this in underneath the meals where those groceries are first used. For example, if I am buying a bag of carrots and plan to use them in three meals, I will list the full price under the meal when I first use them. Here's the template I use every week:
While we ostensibly have 75 pounds to play with at the grocery store each week, Matt and I have been making an effort to stay even lower than that because the leftover budget goes straight into the savings pot. So, here's an example of the completed version that I've made for this week. I know it's a little hard to read but I hope you get the idea:
Another key element (which is probably completely obvious) is trying to plan out each week so that we can take advantage of as many specials at the store as possible. This week starts with Easter Sunday, which meant lamb was on sale. As a result, that's our meat of the week and I've got a leg of lamb roasting as I type this. This will not only make a lovely Easter dinner but will also go into a Shepherds Pie later this week.
So, for the next few weeks, I'll be sharing my weekly recipes along with the pantry, fridge and freezer staples that help us keep the costs down without sacrificing taste. While I know saving money at the grocery store is not a priority for everyone, I hope the recipes will still be interesting and offer some new ideas on how to use up leftovers so you don't get sick of them!
And, of course, I'll also be sharing stand out restaurant experiences and travel adventures as always (and we have a great trip coming up in May... California vibes!).
Let me know below what your favorite frugal yet tasty recipe is and any money saving grocery tips you swear by!
